Personal patient warming apparatuses are known in the art. Being “personal,” these apparatuses do not serve in any meaningful way to warm a general area (such as a room). Instead, these apparatuses serve to provide local-to-a-patient warming for the benefit of an individual patient (typically during the administration of a medical-services procedure such as but not limited to an operation). While some of the delivered warmth will typically escape beyond the patient themselves, the focus of the warmth delivery mechanism is intended and designed to primarily warm the patient as versus the local environment.
One category of personal patient warming apparatuses serves to deliver warmed air to the patient. By one common approach, the personal patient warming apparatus includes a blanket that overlies the patient. This blanket includes one or more internal pneumatic chambers. A blower forces warmed air into the blanket and that warmed air then exits the blanket via a plurality of small orifices (typically located on an underside surface of the blanket). The exiting warmed air, in turn, provides local warming in very close proximity to the patient.
While such an approach can serve very well to warm a patient in a highly localized and controlled manner, there is the potential for such an approach to introduce new complications as well. For example, the warmed air directed to the patient may include potentially harmful microbes. The sources of such microbes are many and varied. Some operating rooms, for example, use a top-to-bottom air flow ventilation system. In such a case the most contaminated air in the room will typically be near the floor. Unfortunately, the air-intake for the heater/blower of the personal patient warming apparatus may also be located near the floor, hence encouraging the intake of contaminated air. In other cases, and as another example, the microbes may be growing with the pneumatic pathways of the heater/blower itself.
Many personal patient warming apparatuses include a particulate filter (not to be confused with a HEPA filter). While suitable to block larger particles such as certain dust particles, such a filter will not ordinarily block the passage of microbes. Accordingly, if potentially-harmful microbes are present, the usual filters employed in available personal patient warming apparatuses are largely ineffectual to keep those microbes separated from the patient. Exposure to microbes, in turn, carries with it a risk of infection and attending complications.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.